The present invention pertains to vehicular mounting assembly for rearview mirrors, and in particular to a mounting assembly having a breakaway capacity.
Breakaway rearview mirrors are utilized to reduce the severity of injury for an individual who impacts it with a predetermined magnitude of force. In the past, one approach has been to attach the mirror through the use of a frangible element. An example of such a construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,436,049 issued Apr. 1, 1969, to DeClaire et al., and entitled BREAKAWAY MIRROR SUPPORT. However, with this construction, a new mounting assembly must be purchased and installed with every instance the mirror is broken away. This result dramatically increases the cost and time needed to reattach the mirror.
In an effort to overcome the deficiencies and problems of using a frangible mounting assembly, past artisans have developed spring biased mechanisms and/or resilient support members which act to bend or give way, but not fracture, upon impact. Examples of such constructions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,471,115 issued Oct. 7, 1969, to Corbin, and entitled REARVIEW MIRROR SUPPORT; and 3,425,657 issued Feb. 4, 1969, to Doyle, and entitled VEHICLE REAR VIEW MIRROR ASSEMBLY. However, these resilient arrangements provide a less secure and steady mounting of the mirror when placed in an operative position.